We recently bent 215 pieces of .79” OD X .083” WALL C-276 for a chemical processing application. C-276 alloy is one of the most corrosion resistant alloys currently available. This project is a perfect example of how consistent, accurate and reliable we are with jobs that require extreme precision!
Albina Co., Inc. is not just a structural steel bending shop! Some of our biggest customers are manufacturing companies that require bent material and repeat jobs of small parts. We recently finished a project that required some complex tube bends on our CNC draw bending equipment out of the following materials:
136 pieces of 1″ OD X .065″ WALL T304 S/S bent to a 2½” center-line radius.
136 pieces of Tube Steel 1″ X 1″ X .083″ WALL T304 S/S bent to a 3½” inside radius.
68 pieces of ½” OD X .049″ WALL T304 S/S bent to a ½” center-line radius.
All parts were cut, bent, washed and packaged by Albina Co., Inc. for shipment. Prior to shipping all parts needed to be free of dirt, debris and oil.
When striving to be the best, you can never settle and should always explore opportunities to improve. Albina adopts the philosophy of continuous improvement in all aspects of our company. We are ALWAYS looking to make improvements in everything we do. The most recent improvement we are committing to is with some of our bending equipment. We are purchasing two new bending machines to allow us to provide parts to higher quality standards and provide for better repeatability.
The two machines we are purchasing are smaller rotary draw benders. The larger of the two machines will bend up to 3½” OD material while the smaller of the two machines will bend up to 2” OD material. We are very excited to bring these two machines to our already vast list of equipment.
As 2016 comes to a close, we take a look back on some of the improvements we have made as a company to help better service the steel industry and our customer base.
Equipment and tooling upgrades to increase capacities and product offerings.
We added two new rotary draw benders, a 6″ Coast Wallace with a carriage assist and overhead clamp.and a Pines #6 with a customized back boost, to our current inventory of equipment. We plan to fully tool these pieces of equipment allowing us to offer countless new radii options for our customers growing needs and demanding lead times.
Shop floor redesign to maximize workflow efficiency and utilization of space.
Before our new machines arrived, we completely restructured our shop allowing us to group similar machines in common areas. The result is improved material flow, increased production, and more efficient production.
Welcomed Stu Hasman as an additional Regional Director of Sales.
We are confident Stuart’s commitment to quality, customer service and his integrity will make him a valuable resource as our company and your business continue to grow.
Energy Efficient Lighting in Shop & Office. Solar Panel project coming in 2017.
As Albina Co., Inc. continues to try to reduce our carbon footprint and be environmentally conscience, we completely retrofitted our entire production shop and office facility with energy efficient lighting this year. We are examining the potential to add solar panels on the South side of our building roof to reduce power consumption in early 2017.
We added two new rotary draw benders, a 6” Coast Wallace and a Pines #6, to our current inventory of equipment. Rotary draw, or compression bending occurs when material is bent by rotating it around a bend die (and typically pulled or pushed over mandrel rod). A bend die is formed to fit a specific material size/type and at a specific diameter to fit the bend requirements. The material to be bent is clamped to the bend die and then is drawn, or pulled, around the bend die until the desired degree of bend is met. This method produces clean, tight radii bends and is mainly used by manufacturers or industrial companies.
The 6” Coast is a long machine with a carriage assist and overhead clamp. The machine has the capacity to bend up to 6” pipe down to an 18” CLR. The machine has tooling allowing it to bend 2-1/2”, 3”,4”, 5” and 6” pipe to numerous radii.
6″ Coast Wallace Rotary Draw Bending Machine
Tooling for 6″ Coast Wallace Rotary Draw Bending Machine
The Pines #6 is a long machine with a customized back boost. This machine has the capacity to bend up to 6” pipe (and has the ability to bend thin wall material). In addition to round materials, this machine has the capacity to mandrel bend square and rectangular tubing, in fact it is currently under power to bend TS 12” x 4” x 5/16” wall the easy way to a 24” CLR.
We plan to fully tool these pieces of equipment allowing us to offer countless new radii options for our customers growing needs. The recent changes have greatly improved moral in our shop, increased our efficiencies, and decreased lead times in certain areas of the shop.
Albina Co., Inc. has operated in a 50,000 square foot shop since 2001. The shop was designed and built taking into account our equipment at the time of occupancy as well as future plans for growth. Over the years, Albina has purchased many bending machines including draw bending equipment, roll bending equipment and plate rolling equipment and we have done our best to place machines in “free” spaces in our shop. This has created some organization and operational issues because similar machines were not grouped together. Once again, Albina has purchased two new machines to add to our equipment inventory. Before these machines arrived, we completely restructured our shop and have completed a major overhaul in order to group similar machines in common areas. Our next blog will feature information on the machines! Stay tuned!